On Tonight Show,' Fallon pays tribute to Williams

Boulder resident Wendy Darling tapes up a sign that reads "Fly Be Free Robin," as she pays tribute to Robin Williams at a makeshift memorial outside the home where the 80s TV series "Mork & Mindy," was set, in Boulder, Colo., Tuesday Aug. 12, 2014. Williams, the Academy Award winner and comic supernova whose explosions of pop culture riffs and impressions dazzled audiences for decades and made him a gleamy-eyed laureate for the Information Age, died Monday in an apparent suicide. He was 63. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

NEW YORK (AP) — Jimmy Fallon paid tribute to Robin Williams on the “Tonight Show,” where the late comic made many memorable, seldom-seated appearances.

His voice cracking, Fallon called Williams “the Muhammad Ali of comedy” on Tuesday and stood atop his desk to declare, “O Captain, my captain, you will be missed.” Fallon performed a brief impression of Williams’ fast-talking, riffing delivery, but mostly let a clip from Williams’ first appearance on the “Tonight Show” in 1981 speak for itself.

To the delight of host Johnny Carson, Williams jumped into the crowd playing a mock evangelist. Such frenetic guest spots became regular events for Williams.

With many late-night hosts on break this week, few have yet reacted on air to Williams’ death on Monday. Conan O’Brien heard the news while taping his TBS show Monday.